Best neighborhood ever! Logan Square

I really hadn’t planned on it.  I’d covered the Chicago Reader’s “Best of” issues for the past three years.  I thought I was through with it, at least for the time being.  I didn’t encourage readers to vote in this year’s Chicago Reader’s “Best of Chicago 2011” polls.

But, dammit! “Best Overall Neighborhood” merits a blog post.

Best Overall Neighborhood – Logan Square

But not just Best Overall Neighborhood; how about:

Best Neighborhood for Affordability – Logan Square

(runner-up) Best Neighborhood for Culture – Logan Square

(runner-up) Best Neighborhood for Diversity – Logan Square

(runner-up) Best Neighborhood for Nightlife – Logan Square.

After having to work to find last year’s Logan Square gems (see “Best of” closest to the square), this year’s edition was chock full of Logan Square, which, like the whole of Chicago, does its share of “world-class dining scene,”  “grassroots arts movement,” and “one beautiful mess of highbrow and low.”  It’s almost all Logan Square, all the time this year, so I’ve not distinguished the Reader’s picks from the Reader’s readers’ picks.  [Update:  How did I

Logan Square is for lovers

That according to Steve Dolinsky, otherwise known as the Hungry Hound.

On his blog he picks the Top 5 restaurants for a first date in Chicago, and two of them are right here in Logan Square:  Lula Café and Longman & Eagle, both of which have received national attention this year. 

Dolinsky’s criteria:  “just focus on the food, and the atmosphere will usually take care of itself.”  Not being a foodie, ambience is key for me.  But these places have atmosphere in spades,…and buzz, which contributes to the lively ambience.

The buzz at Lula (photo left), of course, has always been the food, and Dolinsky recommends a shared dessert to ice the date cake.  But they’ve also featured interesting art on the walls, an attractive outdoor seating area, and I was particularly fond of their expansion of a few years back when it was more of a lounge (though I absolutely understand why it became another dining area).  Did you know they are expanding even further?  We’ll have to see what that iteration brings.